The present invention in its several aspects presented herein is in the area of telephone communication in the broadest sense; that is, including all multimedia communication aspects of intelligent networks, call-center technology including computer-telephony integration (CTI), and Internet protocol telephony networks and related technology.
Telephone is one of the most widely used communication equipments in the world. At first, it was merely a convenient tool to allow people to communicate while they are physically separated. Recently, many companies use telephones to market products and services, provide technical supports to consumer products, allow customers to access their own financial data, etc. Thus, telephone is becoming a major business and marketing tool.
In order to more effectively use telephone for business and marketing purposes, call centers have been developed. In a call center, a large number of agents handle telephone communication with customers. The matching of calls between customers and agents is typically performed by software. A simple example is used here to describe a few of the many advantages of using call centers. When a call is made to a call center, the telephone number of the calling line is typically made available to the call center by a telephone carrier. Based on this telephone number, the software in the call center can access a database server to obtain information about the customer who has been assigned that phone number. The software can now route the call to an agent who can best handle the call based on predefined criteria (e.g., language skill, knowledge of products the customer bought, etc.). The software immediately transfers relevant information to a computer screen used by the agent. Thus, the agent can gain valuable information about the customer prior to receiving the call. As a result, the agent can more effectively handle the telephone transaction.
It can be seen from the above example that the enabling technology requires a combination of telephone switching and computer information processing technologies. The term commonly used for this combined technology is computer-telephony-integration (CTI).
In recent years, advances in computer technology and telephony equipment and infrastructure as well has provided many opportunities for improving telephone service. Similarly, development of the information and data network known as the Internet together with advances in computer hardware and software has led to a new multi-media telephone system known in the art as Internet protocol network telephony (IPNT). In IPNT as well as in the older intelligent and CTI-enhanced telephony systems, both privately and publicly switched, it is desirable to handle more calls faster and to provide improved service in every way, including such improvements as video calls and conferencing.
In various embodiments and aspects of the present invention described in enabling detail below, new and enhanced apparatus and methods are provided for improving telephony systems and service.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention an Internet Protocol Network Telephony (IPNT) call routing system is provided, comprising a plurality of call centers, each center having a managing computer coupled to a wide area network (WAN) and a plurality of PCs at agent stations, the managing computers adapted to receive IPNT calls on the WAN and to distribute the calls to the PCs at the agent stations; a central controller having a dedicated data link separate from the WAN to each of the managing computers at the plurality of call centers and connected to the WAN, the central controller adapted to receive IPNT calls from the WAN and distribute the calls to the managing computers at the call centers; and a statistical server coupled to the central controller and adapted to monitor call activity at each of the plurality of call centers via the dedicated data links, keeping a real-time record of call center loading and activity. The central controller routes IPNT calls to the connected call centers via the WAN based on monitored activity of each call center, and, in the event of failure of a dedicated data link to any one of the managing computers, continues to route calls to the disconnected call center based on estimates of activity at the disconnected call center calculated at the central controller and based on historical activity of the call center. In a preferred embodiment the WAN is the Internet.
In an aspect of the invention a method for routing an Internet Protocol Network Telephony call arriving at a system having a plurality of call centers controlled by a central controller, each of said plurality of call centers periodically sending current status information to said central controller, a specific one of said call centers being temporarily unable to send said current status information to said central controller, said method comprising the steps of retrieving status information of said specific one of said call centers that has been previously sent to said central controller; estimating current status of said one call center based on said retrieved status information; and routing said call by said central controller to one of said plurality of call centers using said estimated status of said one call center and current status information of other call centers.
In the method aspect the estimating step may comprise steps of determining whether all calls routed to said one call center are likely to be completely processed; and setting number of calls in a queue and number of busy agents equal to zero if all calls routed to said one call center are likely to be completely processed. The estimating step may also comprise steps of determining whether an approximate number of unprocessed calls in said one call is less than number of available agent; and setting number of calls in a queue equal to zero if the approximate number of unprocessed calls in said one call is less than the number of available agent. The routing step may comprise steps of estimating a time of oldest call in a queue of said one call center; and forming a routing strategy based partly on said time of oldest call.
The methods of the present invention allow a centrally-managed call center system that routes calls based on updated call center activity status to keep operating efficiently even when one or more of the call centers become unable to report current activity to the central controller.